Daily Devotion - 2/12/09

The Lord is with us!

Perhaps one way to read Psalm 97 is as a study in contrasts.  As Gary wrote yesterday in his thoughts about similar hymn of praise, all creation has within it the ability to praise God by being exactly what it was created to be.  This means that water worships, celebrates and praises God through it's ability to flow, cleanse and quench the thirst of land, beast and man.  Light through its ability to illuminate, dazzle and stream.  Trees through their ability to remain rooted while reaching, to provide shelter and shade from both the hot sun and the cold rain and to speak softly in the wind.

Human beings too worship God through the use of the gifts He created them to have.  One such gift is in the exercise of their free will to choose God while another is to use the creative nature and energy to imagine and create new ways to understand and worship Him.  Unlike nature, however, human being can use their free will and creative energy to create and worship "gods" of their own making.  Such is the central theme of this song.

After the Babylonians took the kingdom of Judah into captivity and deported them to the capital city with it's worship of idols of the god Marduk, the Israelites where faced with something of an existential dilemma.  If their God, Yahweh, was really more powerful and ruled over all the other "gods", why were His chosen people the ones conquered?  Why didn't He protect and preserve them?  Why were they brought to this place where it seemed that Marduk reigned in the hearts and minds of the people.  To these questions the prophet Isaiah offered answers designed both to lead the nation to redemption and to expose the ridiculousness of the idol worship in Babylon.  Verse 7 of this psalm echos Isaiah's writings that ask if the idols are able to feed themselves or do anything without the help of their priests and worshippers.   The people of Israel needed to see first hand that the idols were made by men to serve men.  They needed to see that the blocks of stone had no power of their own. They needed to remember that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob comes wrapped in light and clouds, can melt mountains, wields fire and creates righteousness and justice.  The Marduk idols couldn't do that and so those that worshipped them must be filled with shame.

For some reason there is a need in us humans to create idols to replace God.  There is some part of us that takes that gift that God has given us to imagine and create with our minds and our hands and uses it to fashion idols for us to worship.  In part, I think it's because we want a god that serves us, one that we control.  We want a god that we can turn to in our time of need but that we can hide away when it isn't convenient.  In times past those idols might have been made of wood or stone or polished metal.  Now days we've gotten a bit more savvy and our idols are things like money or power or prestige or ideas and ideologies.  And just like the idols of old that couldn't feed themselves, so too do our new idols need for us to offer the sacrifices of our lives and families and relationships to remain strong in our minds and hearts.  In time, our new idols even consume us, their makers, with our need to continue their place in our lives.  In time, we come to feel the shame of having such impotent idols.

One way to be reminded to set aside our idols is to remember who our God really is.  We do this through praise and worship wherein we strive to recall who God is in His majesty and power and love and justice.  We ask His light to expose our idols for what they really are and to rid us of our shame and restore us to joy.  It is in our worship and praise that our creative energies are turned back towards God and our imaginations are refocused on Him.  The praise psalms we have been reading over the last few days are striking examples of that sort of use of the gifts God has blessed each and every one of us with.  When we recall that we have been made, like all creation, to worship Him in doing what He designed us to do, we find ourselves freed of the need for idols and substitutes.

So let's try to do that.  Let's try and forget about the power and the status and the rest and focus on worshipping God with the lives He has given us.  Let's remember that if we are faithful and prudent, the money stuff will work itself out and we will have the things we need according to God and seek first the Kingdom of God instead.

Grace and Peace.

In Him,

Chad

Psalm 97

The LORD reigns, let the earth be glad; 
      let the distant shores rejoice.

Clouds and thick darkness surround Him; 
      righteousness and justice are the foundation of His throne.

Fire goes before Him 
      and consumes His foes on every side.

His lightning lights up the world; 
      the earth sees and trembles.

The mountains melt like wax before the LORD, 
      before the Lord of all the earth.

The heavens proclaim His righteousness, 
      and all the peoples see His glory.

All who worship images are put to shame, 
      those who boast in idols— 
      worship Him, all you gods!

Zion hears and rejoices 
      and the villages of Judah are glad 
      because of Your judgments, O LORD.

For You, O LORD, are the Most High over all the earth; 
      You are exalted far above all gods.

Let those who love the LORD hate evil, 
      for He guards the lives of His faithful ones 
      and delivers them from the hand of the wicked.

Light is shed upon the righteous 
      and joy on the upright in heart.

Rejoice in the LORD, you who are righteous, 
      and praise His holy name.